A World to Explore

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — The 2010 Wooster Geology Israel team finished its work today in the Upper Cretaceous rocks at our northern locality, Wadi Aqrav. We measured several dozen cobbles from the base of the Menuha Formation, and then collected fossils from the Zihor Formation which we had previously measured. We are now looking forward to a shabbat dinner at the home of our hosts Yoav and Noa, and then a trip tomorrow to visit Masada and the Dead Sea.

View of the cobble-bearing bedding plane at the base of the Menuha Formation (Late Cretaceous) from the cliff above.

An abraded oyster attached to the bored surface of one of the cobbles. This is the kind of hard-substrate paleontology I enjoy.

On the left is a large ammonite found in the middle of the Zihor Formation. It is encrusted on one side by oysters. On the right is a bit of vertebrate bone incorporated in the cobbles at the base of the Menuha Formation. (Yes, I think it must be from a dinosaur.)